Archive for 2011

Downtown Tourcoing is currently at the heart of an extensive restructuring, launched a few years ago. All public spaces, streets and squares are being fully renovated, and a large shopping mall with movie theatres will be inaugurated soon. As part of this project, the Metro, tram and bus station come together to offer a true multimodal system.

In a ceremony on November 23rd the Design Exchange (DX) and distinguished judges announced Canada’s top 50 design projects. In its 20th year the awards welcomed hundreds of applications across Canada in the categories of Architecture, Interior Design, Industrial Design, Landscape Architecture, Urban Design, Visual Communications, Fashion and CEO of the Year. Projects were judged on their level of innovation, sustainability/accessibility, function, profitability and aesthetics.

About The Design Exchange:
The Design Exchange (DX) is Canada’s design centre and museum with a mission to promote the value of design. We are an internationally recognized non-profit educational organization committed to promoting greater awareness of design as well as the indispensable role it plays in fostering economic growth and cultural vitality. We build bridges by improving communication between various design disciplines, educators, businesses and the general public through programs, exhibits, lectures, and workshops.

The burying underground of the highway that ran along the edges of the Manzanares river provided the opportunity to open up a new urban territory to the inhabitants of Madrid: the Manzanares Park. A series of bridges over the river will allow passage from one side of the park to the other. Designed to link the neighborhoods on the right and left banks of the river, the Arganzuela Footbridge will be the longest of all the bridges to be built. The bridge will be for both pedestrians and cyclists.

An international architectural competition for the Museum of the History of Polish Jews was organized in spring 2005. The first discussions regarding the plan to build such a museum had taken place ten years earlier. During those years it had become clear that there is a need for a dedicated museum as public interest towards Jewish history and culture had increased.

Prior to the completion of the new St. Anthony Hospital, the South Sound Region represented one of the largest population centers in the State of Washington without a central community hospital. As a result more than 3,500 emergencies and 4,000 patients requiring overnight care had to travel outside of the area for treatment annually. The 80-bed, 250,000 SF full service hospital in Gig Harbor addresses the need for critical health care services within this growing region, and provides quality care in a patient-centered environment that celebrates the local community’s Native American and maritime history, rich natural landscape, and the connection between nature, health and well-being.

In this small, weekend and vacation retreat, the clients and their daughter seek to take refuge from the world. As such, the home is introverted; but the clients also desired that the house achieve a maximum connection to its beautiful, forested, lake-side site. Last, it is important to note that this home is built as a place the clients will keep for their entire lives and then pass on to their daughter; the clients, a couple each involved in art conservation, sought a home whose design would itself be conceived as a vessel for the conservation of the family memories that will unfold here.

Inspiria Science Centre is designed as one of the most advanced science centres in Northern Europe and is part of a long-term plan to make knowledge the most important asset of the Østfold Region in Norway. This ambitious plan is reflected in the architectural aspiration, as the trifold form is designed as a communications platform merging the environment, energy and health.

The dramatic setting for this unusual project is a 110,000-acre private ranch in north-central Wyoming, replete with steep canyons, tall mesas, rushing streams. The Alm Foundation, a private Los Angeles charity, commissioned Charles Rose Architects to build a camp in this rugged terrain for teen-agers from inner-city Los Angeles. There are 16 buildings in all “clustered around the mouth of a canyon” including boys and girls cabins, a dining hall, director’s house, counselors lodge and stable.

Jestico + Whiles, architects of the award‐winning W London in Leicester Square, has completed the interior design of the luxurious boutique hotel Villa Honegg in Switzerland, recently classified as ‘Five Star Superior’. Sitting at an altitude of almost 1,000 metres on Mount Bürgenstock, the exclusive resort provides guests with a peaceful haven and magnificent views across Lake Lucerne.

This building is a multi purpose hall, built for Hunter Valley Grammar School in NSW, Australia. The brief was for a building that contained 2 basketball courts, a stage, a commercial kitchen, a foyer for functions, 5 classrooms, a gym and all the associated services. The building also had to be able to seat 1000 students for school assemblies.